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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, J 

Chap. ...C. ^sT-'"® % 



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\ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. j 



PROFESSOR LABORLAYE, 



THE 



GREAT FRIEND OF AMERICA, 



OX THE 



PRESIDENTIAL- ELECTION. 



[TRANSLATION] 
Of a paper revived at tfeo Department of Sfate from the American Consul at Paris. 



THE EI*ECTION OF THE 

» 






, m cU^ 1 






W A S H I K G T N : 

PiusTEfc pen the Ctnion congressional committee. 

1S64. 



PROFESSOR LABOULAYE, 



GREAT FRIEND OF AMERICA, 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 



• (TRANSLATION] 

Of a paper received at the Department of State from the American Consul at Paris. 



THE ELECTION OP THE PRESIDENT OP THE 
UNITED STATES. 



In the life sf Nations, there are supreme moments in which 
the choice made is decisive of the future ; the greatness and 
the freedom of the People are at stake ; an instant of weak- 
ness, all is lost; an instant of energy, a last effort, and all is 
saved. 

It is in one of the secrisis that the United States are now in- 
volved. The election of President may assure the triumph 
or the ruin of the North, it will decide the question of Union 
or Separation. AccordiDg to the name which shall come 
forth from the popular urn, America may regain peace and 
become the model for free countries, or may fall into that in- 
curable anarchy which has made the Spanish Republic the 
prey of miserable despots, the laughing stock and jest of 
Europe. 

Two names are presented : that of Abraham Lincoln, n/nd 
that of McClellan. But in this case names are of little im- 
portance. Mr. Lincoln, Mr. McClellan are two banners which 
represent the opposing parties, and it is on the coming in of 
one of these parties that the loss or the safety of the Union 
depends. Let us set the men aside. Their ability or their 
past mistakes will not weigh in the balance ; the question in 
agitation is quite another thing from the success of a personal 



-- 



ambition. For the Union, for America, it is a question of 
Life or Death. 

Mr. Lincoln represents a policy the most compact. It is 
comprised in two words : Maintenance of the Union, the amo- 
tion of slavery, all the rest is merely accessory, and can 
easily be modified according to circumstances. Mr. McClel- 
lan protests his devotion to the Union, his desire to re-estab- 
lish concord and peace ; but these are general phrases which 
conceal the real thought of the party. At bottom, the policy 
of McClellan is not less defined than that of his rival. To 
him who knows how to construe the device on his banner, it 
means — Re-establishment of Union such as may be, Slavery 
continuing a domestic question, that is slavery continuing. 
To end a bloody strife and restore peace by replastering a t 
whatever cost the old edifice of the Union, such are the prom- 
ises of the General ; they are not dazzling ; one must reckon 
upon the miseries of prolonged war; on the sufferings of trade • 
on the weariness of men's spirits, to venture to propose to the 
American People conditions so depressing. They would not 
have been offered two years ago. But even these^promises 
moderate as they may be, the General, become President^ 
will not be able to fulfill. 

The force of events will be more powerful than the dream 
of a candidate. 'Without the gift of phophecy it may be 
affirmed that Mr. McClellan will not control the freshet he It 
desires to let loose. The success of the General is the uphold- 
ing of Slavery ; and the upholding of Slavery is the abdica. 
tion of the North and the triumph of the South. There i& 
the- danger that menaces the Union. For all friends of Amer- 
ica and of freedom, it is a duty to point this out. 

Why does the South secede % Is it on a question of tariffs — 
a difference of race, or of creed ? No ; all these fine pretences 
have been imagined to blind Europe, and those who invented 
them have been the first to laugh at our credulity. 

During thirty years or more the South has ruled the Union, 
It is the policy of the South that has been the policy of the 
United States ; there have been no Presidents but those who 
have had the support of the South. How is it that the South 
has been able to wield this preponderant influence ? The 
answer is easy. The South has strengthened itself through 
one of the parties existing at the North. It has adopted th 



i 



men on condition these men would become the auxiliaries and 
accomplices of its desires and its interests ; never was a bar- 
gain more faithfully kept. That party always ready to serve 
a sectional policy, is that which styles itself democratic, in 
opposition to the republican party — it is that which now puts 
forward General McClellan ; what it desires is not difficult of 
divination ; its past answers for its future. 

Why did the South seek to rule the Union ? For a single 
reason: to maintain Slavery. It needed political domination 
in order to secure its internal despotism. It needed to reign 
at Washington in order to prevent a ray of freedom from pene- 
trating the cabin of the negro. Each year the Union was ex- 
extentled ; each year some new free State came to add a star 
without a stain to the federal banner;, the South, with its 
slaves, could only follow with halting step the triumphal 
march of freedom, and nevertheless it must at any cost 
maintain the political equality of Slavery ; another free State, 
and the scales were turned. The success of freedom was the 
overthrow of the South. 

Such is the policy the South has followed with a tenacity 
worthy of a better cause. In Europe it is the fashion, hv 
good society, to admire the southern gentlemen, and have a 
moderate estimation of the northern people. Europe is full of 
ignorant marquises who disdain hands browned and hardened 
by labor. The idleness of a nobleman is a noble thing, and 
what finer noblemen than the rich planters of the South? 
Brave, rash, intractable on a point of honor, rich, hospitable, 
profuse ; is more wanting to enchant the fine people ? The re- 
verse of the medal, no one cares to see with good reason, for 
it is the ugliest and saddest in the world, the taking advan- 
tage of labor by idleness, of weakness by force, of wretched- 
ness by riches. The Gospels are dishonored, humanity tram- 
pled under foot, but what matters humanity and the Gospels? 
In face of men so bold, and women of such fasfiion never dream 
that all that elegance has been paid for by the sweat and 
blood of a wretched negro basely down-trodden. 

On the day when the people of the North and West se- 
riously undertook their duty as men, as citizens, as christians, 
the day when the eup of infamy overflowed, when there was 
no longer willingness to act as the jailer and servitor of the 
South — on that day, the South, with its o-hivalric audacity, 



6 

proudly raised the banner of civil war; it had made game of 
. the Union and the Constitution as a planter makes game of 
his slaves or his dogs. Everything is allowable to noblemen ; 
there are no duties, no native country for the chivalry. What 
■• can be asked from a man who heroically kills his fellow citizens 
or who dies bravely on a battle field ? There is no crime so 
great that temerity does not grant it amnesty. 
' To this culpable attack the North replied by sending its 
sons to defend the threatened fatherland. It is also the fash- 
. ion in Europe to pretend that the recruits of the northern 
armies are mercenaries. There may now be a certain number 
.of foreigners in them. I do not deny it, but that the North 
has not given its best and purest blood to the war is one of 
those ingenious fictions with which our simplicity is played 
upon. At Boston, at New York, at Philadelphia there is not a 
workshop nor a counting-house without its vacant places, 
there is scarcely a family not in mourning. In France in 
1792, not more patriotism was shown, nor more courage, 
more self-devotion. 

The war was entered upon with this war cry only : To 
maintain the Union, to save the country. But by degrees as 
the contest went on, and all the strength of the resistance of 
the power of the South began to be felt, eyes were opened. 
The North had not provoked war ; the North had not violated 
the Constitution, the North had not menaced the South, either 
in its liberty, or its privileges, or in its interests, the right to 
meddle with slavery had never been thought of, all had re- 
coiled from the enormity of the question ; but when once the 
struggle was commenced, it was asked what causes have 
brought about the fratricide war, which costs the North s© 
much blood, so many sorrows, such sacrifices — one word re- 
plies to all this: it is slavery; it is the sum of all infamies, 
as the pious Wesley justly said, which has induced the South 
to commit the greatest of crimes. To the profit of its ego- 
tism and its ambition the South has destroyed without pity 
the work of Washington, and raised its hands against the 
country. 

The evil once recognized, the remedy was sought for. Mr. 
Lincoln has been the interpreter of the national will, when to 
the upholding of the Union as the object of the war he added 
the abolition of slavery. The two things hold together 



so long as there shall be a slave on the soil of free America. 
The Union will be merely one word — things will be ever on 
the eve of a new explosion. 

What is it that this word Union signifies*? Is it merely 
the juxta-position on the same territory of men separated in 
feeling, in interests, in opinions ? Is it, on the contrary, a 
society of men holding the same faith, and the same will? 
To put the question is to solve it. Why does the resident of 
Maine or Connecticut feel himself to be the fellow-country- 
man and friend of the planter who dwells on the border of 
Lake Superior, or on the shores of the Pacific ? It is because 
both hold the same faith and the same love, and both ac- 
knowledge liberty only. But can it be that the Yankee, in- 
dustrious, economical, jealous of the common equality, will 
ever. agree with the planter who lives by domination, who de- 
spises industry, and who acknowledges only the law of his 
power and his passions ? It is impossible. Between the de- 
mocracy of labor and aristocracy of idleness, between a free 
society and a slave society there is an abyss that nothing can 
bridge. The first, the sole condition upon which the Union 
can be re-established in a durable manner, is that Slavery 
must disappear, and that liberty may give to all the like in- 
terests, the like duties, the same faith, and the same country. 

Such is the policy that sustains Mr. Lincoln ; it is the only 
rational one, because it is the only just one. It is not the 
North that provoked the strife. For more than thirty years 
it has bowed before the privileges of the South. Through 
respect for the Constitution, it has borne with every thing, 
and now that those privileges have given birth to civil war, the 
North would be insane if it did not avail, even of its calamity, 
to uproot and abolish slavery, and to destroy, with the same 
blow, aristocracy by the establishing Of liberty. 

Let not the meaning of my words be mistaken. I do not 
mean to assail the men of the South, it is that fatal institu- 
tion which has blinded and destroyed them. I do not ap- 
prove all "the measures adopted at the North. I blame con- 
fiscation, which does not belong to our times. I do not like 
that people should talk of transforming into Territories States 
which seek to come back into the Union ; I have no liking 
for violence, or for inequality. Treat considerately men and 
property — have regard for interests, receive with open arms 



8 

the prodigal son who returns to the parental home, offer to 
every wanderer a sincere amnesty, there is nothing better ; 
religion, humanity, self-interest well understood demand this; 
but no quarter to slavery. If you do not kill it, it will kill 
yon. 

This policy, -it will be said, is what the North has sought to 
follow — it has not succeeded. The country is exhusted by 
four years of bloodshed and wretchedness ; has any pro- 
gress been made since the beginning of these events ? I 
avow it, this policy has not succeeded from the beginning ; 
but, except on the stage, where have we seen injustice pun- 
ished in an hour, or virtue rewarded as soon as it has suf- 
fered ? It is otherwise in the affairs of, the world. To ex- 
tirpate a rooted injustice, to expel from society exclusive 
privilege and violence, requires continued effort and painful 
sacrifices. Such is the expiation which God inflicts on those 
who, through weakness, have long tampered with wrong ; he 
sometimes compels the offspring to suffer for the crimes 
which their ancestors should have strangled at their outset. 

If the North has not yet brought the war to a close, is it 
true that it has made no progress? Maryland, Upper Vir- 
ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, are not these restored 
to the Union ? Is it not master of Louisiana, Arkansas, the 
stream Qf the Mississippi % Is it nothing that the harbor of 
Mobile has been taken ? Is the capture of Atlanta nothing 3 
Is it nothing that Grant's army hangs on Lee's flanks, hold- 
ing him stationary abont Richmond % Notwithstanding the 
valor of its soldiery, the energy and skill of its Generals, the 
South is gasping; it has no longer an army of reserve ; a 
victory will not save it ; another campaign may bring mat- 
ters to a close. All its expectations have been destroyed. 
It had counted upon the wants of Europe, on the selfishness 
of the manufacturers, on the jealousies of England. To com- 
plete the work it had begun, to tear the country to pieces, it 
needed help from abroad, but that failed it. King Cotton 
was to place at the feet of the South, Europe needy and in- 
terested. King Cotton has been dethroned, to the advantage 
of India and Egypt. The cause of the humble, the weak, the 
needy has carried the day against the political combinations 
of European Cabinets. England would perhaps be gratified 
by the disseverance of America, which would deliver her 



from the only rivalry she fears, would restore to her the do- 
minion of the seas, and would give the South to her a< a eolotiv 
and as a tete dupont ; but England is the country of Willxr- 
force ; she has not dared to wage war for tin; maintenance of 
slavery ; and what England has not dared to do, no other will 
do. From tlfe beginning, I announced to the South thai it 
could never surmount the moral reprobation of Europe, and 
that not a single prince would venture to brave its opinion. 
I will go farther now, and will add that each day brings 
more clearly to light the interest which all the powers of 
Europe, one alone excepted, have in the maintenance of the 
Union. The traditions of 1781 are reawakened, and, with 
exception of some' subtle and chimeric policies, no man in 
. France questions that the true interest of the country i- to 
maintain the policy of Louis XVI. and Napoleon. Union is 
the first necessity of America ; but, it is also one of the 
greatest interests of France. The freedom of the seas is its 
value ;'and without the freedom of the seas, the independence 
of France, and that of Europe, are equally endangered. 

Abandoned by Europe, encircled and by degrees subdued 
by the North, the South is condemned to self-exhaustion; it 
must give way ; and the moment cannot be far distant. Let 
the North persist in the policy pursued by Mr. Lincoln, more 
easy than all the rest, he maintains at all hazards these two 
conditions. He- establishment of the Union, abandonment of 
Slavery. The South must bow to necessity. Whatever the cour- 
age .of an army, or a people, a time arrives when hopeless resis- 
tance is nothing but sanguinary folly. The Generals and the 
soldiery of theSouthhave fought with an obstinacy and bravery 
to which their adversaries are the first to do justice. But 
they have been deceived, their cause is a bad one, and they 
cannot triumph. Lee, Beauregard have done enough for the 
honor of the flag. It will soon be time for them to think of 
that which humanity and their country demands. Hut there 
is for the South a last chance of salvation : it is that which is 
offered by General McClellan and his party ; it is a transac- 
tion the cost of which will be borne by the wretched negro. 

This transaction is disguised under fine phrases, for to dare 
to state it plainly would cause men to shrink from it. It is 
called, to provide for the security, in the future^ of thi Con' 
st'rfutio?ial rights of each State. Admirable mouthing for 



10 

• 

those who like to pay off in fine words ! In plain language 
it means to say that the North renounces having anything to 
do with Slavery ; and that Slavery shall be maintained at the 
South as long as it shall please the South to maintain it. It is 
to the privileged few that General McClellan remits the care 
of abolishing the privilege : we may be well assured the 
South will not abuse this permission. The South has made 
war to maintain the supremacy of the pro-slavery policy, the 
slave is delivered up to it to make peace. The North resigns 
itself to this. For the love of peace it accepts complicity in 
this infamy, which for four years it has rejected. Thus you 
have in all its nakedness what the democratic party call a 
transaction. $ 

Perhaps at the North there may be people who, tired of 
the war, and caring very little about the miseries of Slavery, 
willingly yield to this arrangement. But I fear not*to say 
they greatly deceive themselves ; this arrangement is imprac- 
ticable. To bargain about interests is most easy, and often 
most just, but we cannot bargain about right and wrong, 
between Slavery and Freed To sacrifice four millions* of 

human beings to a political interest, even for the safety of 
the moment, is a crime, and like all crimes, is a blunder and 
and a danger. 

Let us suppose that General McClellan is elected President. 
What will he do ? He will propose an armistice to the South ; 
commissioners will be appointed, perhaps a convention', to 
regulate the transaction wished for. But we know before- 
hand what conditions the North proposes. Slavery is aban- 
doned to the South, as an institution which concerns it only ; 
all that is asked of the rebels is to be pleased to come back 
into the Union. What is this transaction for the North ? It 
is the loss of four years of war — of ten thousand millions of 
disbursement ; the idle sacrifice of blood poured out on 
twenty battle-fields. The South will have insanely violated 
the Constitution, ruined thousand^ of homes, after which it 
will come back into the Union, more invulnerable, more 
arrogant, and more insolent than ever. For the negroes, no 
hope ; for the poor whites, eternal dependence, perpetual 
debasement ; for the rich planters, the intoxication of power 
and of success. 

And is it imagined that on such conditions the Union will 



11 

he reestablished? That between a humiliated democracy, 
after so many and such generous efforts, and a triumphant 
aristocracy, a friendship will spring uri which will sooji heal 
all the wounds of war? No! that is the dream of insanity, 
bo one can believe it, except he be blinded by a vain ambition. 

On the day which the North shall subscribe to such condi- 
tions, it will be the abdication of her political and social posi- 
tion which she will sign. At the bottom of this new bargain 
may be witten : The Mid of America. The America of 
Washington will have disappeared from ihe world, and 
forever ! 

Peace concluded, what will be the attitude of the North 
towards the South ? That of powerlessness and resignation ; 
for in fine, it cannot be glossed over, if the South is yielded 
to, it is because it could not be overcome ; it is tljat, notwith- 
standing fine sounding words, the North, in its inmost feel- 
ings, acknowledges itself to be conquered. 

If in this respect some illusion should exist at the North, 
the first newspaper from Europe will suffice to dissipate it. 
For thirty years Europe has treated the American Democracy 
disdainfully, because that democracy pattered with slavery. 
To repel this unjust and interested disdain, the North excused 
itself on the ground that from love of peace, from respect for 
the constitution, it resigned itself to a condition it had 
not made. The excuse was legitimate, it was accepted 
by the world in good faith. But from the day when 
.slavery shall be triumphantly re-established with the ac- 
quiesence of the North; when the chains of the negro shall 
be rivetted by the very hands which at this moment are 
breaking them, the North will riot escape the terrible accusa- 
tion of complicity ; and then — what joy for the enemies of 
America and of Liberty ! What grief ! wmat shame for all their " 
friends ! The great Republic will be dishonored, what mat- 
ters, it will be said, the opinion of Europe ; America re-united 
cares little for the old continent, perhaps she will soon have 
some accounts to settle with those who have mocked at her 
quarrels. Be it so, let us put aside public opinion, although 
it may be like justice : more easy to brave it in words than 
to escape its blows. But there is a tribunal which none can 
fiy from — it is conscience. The day when peace shall be signed, 
what will the North think of itself, how judge itself? I 



12 

say nothing of the avowal that will come from the South, 
that will prove that if the North had made a supreme effort, 
all resistance was at an end and the Union would be established 
on tl^e principles o%Liberty and Equality; but after the first 
festivals and first rejoicings on peace, what will the falling back 
on the inward thought be ; and then what sadness, what hu- 
miliation. How will the truth be felt of that great saying of 
Franklin : " Those who to obtain a moment of security, sacri- 
fice liberty, do not deserve to obtain either liberty or scurityP 
Yes, it will be said, the war was severe, sufferings were ex- 
treme, a base currency swallowed up private fortunes, as well 
as the public wealth, but, in the midst of these miseries, the 
war was in a sacred cause, blood was offered up for liberty. 
Religion, the country placed their hopes on us. The ills were 
great without doubt, but these ills, victory has cured them ; 
with that the Republic has recovered its greatness and its 
prosperity. But that which a lame peace will never cure, is 
the leprosy of slavery; that which it will never efface, is that 
black stain which soils our continent. During four years we 
rolled upward the rock of Sysiphus ; for want of a final effort 
it has rolled back upon us, and to overwhelm us. Hence- 
forth we must live giving perpetually the lie to the Gospels, 
by paltering with iniquity, and all this to leave to our children 
what we received from our fathers, an incurable evil that 
will destroy the Republic and liberty. 

Disquiets, regrets, remorse, these are all that transaction 
on which the democrats pride themselves in advance, will 
give — that transaction which they present, as a title to the- 
confidence of an abused people whose suffrages they lay 
claim to. But that transaction, shameful as it may be for the 
North, will the South accept it? I venture to say no. If 
General McClellan gains, that will be his deception and 
the first chastisement of his party. An aristocracy, not numer- 
ous, which holds together, feels its force, and knows how to 
choose the favorable moment. What would the election of 
General McClellan show, except that the democracy is tired 
out, that its efforts are thwarted, that it wishes for peace at 
any price. All is extreme in democracy, feebleness as well 
as energy, self-abandonment as well as heroism. A democracy 
which no longer is willing to war, will accept any conditions 
except to curse the next day those that lead it astray. It is 



13 

certain the South will avail itself of this advantage, and will 
agaia seize upon, at the first moment, that supremacy which 
four years of warfare have caused it to lose ; or it will not re- 
main in the Union; or, if it re-enter, it will only be to appear- 
ance, and assuming there a position by itself, in proposing, 
perhaps, the exclusion of New England, or the singular sys- 
tem of two republics, internally independent, but represented 
abroad by one President. In a word, that sovereignty which 
is acknowledged by treating with it, the South will maintain, 
and will make triumphant. The chief of the new Union es- 
tablished on the ruins of the old, in sound justice should be 
the conquerer. The true President of America, reconstituted 
by the democrats, is not General McClellan, but is Jefferson 
Davis. 

Will the American Democracy let itself be again deceived 
by a party which for thirty years has always led it astray ? 
Has it to such degree desire and thirst for peace that it is 
ready to sacrifice to it honor, interest, the future of the coun- 
try? Among this people that for four years has achieved 
such,great things, will the democrats succeed in recruiting a 
majority to break away from a glorious past, and accept the 
shame of a bargain? Will it disown those noble soldiers, 
who, in the midst of their sufferings only ask a continuance of 
the war? Are they going to turn off Grant, Meade, Sherman, 
Faragut. to offer to the admiration of America the patriotism 
of a people resigned in anticipation to the supremacy of the 
South, or to separation ? If that be America, how has she 
degenerated ! In her history she will find other examples 
and other memories. From 1776 to 1781 what misery did 
not the insurgents undergo, soldiers without bread aud with- 
out shoes, a paper' currency without value, towns burned, 
country places set on fire ; and still, except a handful of loy- 
alists whom disgrace has followed even to the tomb, who ever 
proposed to treat with the enemy? The armies of 1SG4 are 
neither less brave nor less patriotic than the armies of the 
war of Independence. Success is almost certain, the victory 
sure, and in fine we are on the verge of a glorious peace. Is 
this the moment for the American to listen to men who would 
propose to them to abdicate their rights? 

ISTo, I will never believe that a generous spirited nation, 
which already has more than once astonished Europe by its 



14 

energy and perseverance, should yield miserably to discour- 
agement, when with a last effort it can crush the rebellion. 
The hope of the enemies of the great Republic shall be foiled. 
Rejuvenated by victory, refreshed by trials, America will 
banish slavery from the world, and will set an example still 
greater than that of the war of Independence. Twice will 
she have established liberty ; political liberty in 1776, civil 
liberty in 186i. Neither Greece nor Rome have left behind 
them such great memories. 

An old friend of the United States, the vivacity of my ex- 
pressions, should not cause surprise. The world is a solidarity, 
and the cause of America is the cause of Liberty. So long 
as there shall be across the Atlantic a society of thirty mil- 
lions of men, living happily and peacefully under a govern- 
ment of their choice, with laws made by themselves, liberty 
will cast her rays over Europe like an illuminating pharos. 
America disencumbered of slavery, will be the country of all 
ardent spirits, of all generous hearts. But should liberty be- 
come eclipsed in the new world, it would become night in 
Europe, and we shall see the work of Washington, of the 
Franklins, of the Hamiltons, spit upon and trampled under 
foot by the whole school which believes only in violence and 
in success. 

Therefore we wait with impatience the result of the presi- 
dential election, praying God that the name which shall stand 
first on the ballot shall be that of honest and upright Abra- 
ham Lincoln ; for that name will be a presage of victory, the 
triumph of Justice and of Law. To vote for McClellan is to 
vote for the humiliation of the North, the perpetual uphold- 
ing of slavery, the severance of the great republic. To vote 
for Lincoln, is to vote for Union and for Liberty. 

EDWARD LABOULAYE. 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864. 

mim CONGBESStON/U COMMITTEE. 



Hon. R D. MORGAN, of New York. Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. 

'« JAS. HARLAN. of-Iowa. " R. B. VAN VALKEN BURG, N. T. 

" L M. MORRILL, of Maine. " J. A. GARFIELD, of Ohio. 

(Senate.) " J. G. BLAINE, of Maine] 

{House of Representative*.) 

E. D. MORGAN, Chairman, JAS. HARLAN, Treasurer. D. N. COOLE.Y, Sec'y. 



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